Pokemon: Cries of the Shedinja
by darkbeetlebot
Summary: A large amount of off occurrences have been popping up in the headlines lately, and people are saying that this new threat may be the end of Hoenn or the entire Pokemon world. Not a story for the faint of heart.


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**CAUTION: The following story contains content not suitable for the light-hearted person. The following story is a prologue to the soon-to-be-published _Pokemon: The Astral Towers. _If you are disturbed by violence or the like, please do not read on, nobody is making you. You have been warned.**

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Just as the boy leaves his house, an unsettling rustles him. Just a boy of 7 years old, short and with dark brown hair. Nothing but shorts and an ordinary looking shirt and a happy look on his face. That is, until the feeling hits him. One of pure and sheer terror, uncommon to the inhabitants of the small town of Twinleaf.

The boy's mother yells to him, "Don't stay out too long and don't go near the forest! It's dangerous in there!"

The boy nods simply while answering, "Don't worry, mom! I won't go there!" then headed off on his merry way to the distance.

Down and down the way he went 'till he approached a house that looked cheap but sturdy, certainly not like the rest of the houses in the town. He knocked on the door to which a large scruffy looking man appeared and greeted the boy with a warm smile, "Why hello again, my boy! Kazuki was starting to worry you wouldn't come!"

He then opened the door to let out a Kazuki, who was about the same age as the other boy. He looked just as untidy as the man -his father- did. He came out and instantly grinned at the sight of his friend. The two backed away from the house together and proceeded to wander around the town together as Kazuki's father waved while yelling, "Come back before evening!"

After going to 3 other houses, they had gathered together their group of friends consisting of all boys around the same age, if not a few years apart. They all formed into teams with improvised nets set up on both sides and a single ball in the center. Just as they were about to commence a game, one boy asked aloud, "Does he even know how to play soccer?" pointing towards a boy that looked the youngest of the bunch.  
A much older one stepped out and assured him, "I already taught him how to when we started playing." This one looked to be the oldest of the 6 boys in the group.

The one who previously asked the question stared at the young one, then the older, then the young again and nodded, "Let's just start!"

They all took their positions except for the one 7 year old boy in the shorts and plain shirt, who was just staring blankly into the nearby forest which was blocked off by a gate. He stared until one of his teammates tapped him on the shoulder, to which he jumped up and quickly ran to his position. The game commenced.

The game lasted until the sky began to orange and consisted mostly of the young boy fumbling and being kicked around by the others, the older kids easily out-performing the others, and the unsettled boy staring off into the distance. This angered the others and caused them to leave; disappointed with their day. All except for the unsettled one, who kept staring off until Kazuki tapped his shoulder and reminded him, "You need to go home or you'll get in trouble!"

No response. He tried tapping again and shouted, "Hey! Are you list-"

He was cut off by the unsettled boy pointing into the forest and asking, "Can you see that? It's a white thing."

Kazuki stared at the location but insisted, "There's nothing there..." then waited patiently before giving up "...fine." and walking back home with a worried expression.

Just as they left, a young girl glanced at the staring boy from afar and stared at him for a solid minute or two before saying to herself, "What's he doing?"

The staring boy ran over to the fence and grabbed onto the top board, attempting to vault over it.

The girl gasped at this and realized, "Wait, that's Takashi! What is he doing!?" She ran over to him and yelled, "Takashi! You can't go in there!"

Takashi had already gotten over the fence, however. He started walking forwards into the grove as the girl yelled his name repeatedly. Eventually, though, he disappeared into the forest's evening darkness.

The girl ran over to Takashi's home and began pounding on the door. The father yelled at her, "Stop already, I'm coming!" then answered and asked, "Oh, it's the town's own little news girl! What brings you-"

The girl cut him off and roughly said, "Takashi leaped the fence near the soccer field!"

The father froze in place for a moment before yelling through the house, "Honey, i'll be back in ten minutes! There's something I need to take care of!" Then slid on his shoes and rushed out the door with the girl.

After retrieving Professor Birch, the Girl and Takashi's father made their way to the soccer field. The girl pointed at the place where Takashi leaped the fence and quietly said, "There."

Professor Birch pulled out a pair of goggles and scanned the area for a moment and saying, "I can't see a thing. It's all cold...this is unusual." He pulled out a pokeball and threw it out, "Dustox! We need your help!" The Dustox spawned out of the ball and flew around hyperactively before flying into the forest a few meters.

The professor ran and jumped the fence, then threw Takashi's father a pokeball, "Use this, It will keep you safe! Now follow me!" then proceeded to follow the Dustox.

Takashi's father ran after him and clumsily climbed over the fence.

The girl gulped and quickly followed as well.

Travelling deeper and deeper in, the professor, Takashi's father, and the girl followed the Dustox, which led them through the eerily vacant forest. A light appeared suddenly, a blue flame floating and illuminating the trees to reveal flocks of ninjask waiting patiently and latched to the bark. the Dustox panicked over the light and flew strait into it, causing the flame to vanish without a trace. The professor stuttered to move forward suddenly and asked as he turned, "Are you two alright?"

Takashi's father nodded, "Yes."

No reply from the girl.

Birch was shivering by this point, "What is happening?" Just as he said that, he stepped forward into a something soft and mushy. He took his foot back and pulled out a flashlight, "I hope this light doesn't disturb the ninjask any more than that flame or we'll be-" but he stopped as the flashlight turned on and he stared at a pile of fat and a decaying Zigzagoon corpse. Just the hollow skin and bones and scattered fat of the poor creature.

Takashi glanced at it and turned around to puke from the sight.

Elsewhere in the forest, the girl started following a trail of the blue flames until she reached a small clearing. Staring from behind the tree, she saw Takashi standing and staring at a tall figure.

But this figure was not like anything she had seen before, even from pictures and drawings of exotic pokemon in books and photos. The thing had a thin, feminine figure and a flowing dress made of what appeared to be a sort of still and partially translucent version of the flames seen floating around them. The dress even appeared to be at an angle. Other than that, the arms were long and slender like a Gardevoir's but with longer fingers that appeared deformed. It's torso was like that of a Blaziken's, but with 6 large oval protrusions jutting out. A rotation of angle revealed a large hole and protrusions coming from the shoulderblades reminiscent of a Shedinja's. The head was bare at the back and from the front, it looked like two triangles in the shape of a mask shield. The face was near bare and consisted of an odd ghostly mouth and blank eyes that appeared to be both made of the same flames the dress was. And all of this being shades of solid white.

The thing did not even appear to walk on the ground but instead hover.

Moments after the girl finished observing the thing, it hovered ever so closer to the entranced Takashi, just staring at him. The blue flames began burning rapidly and making a terrible static-like noise while the thing bent down from it's giant 2 meter stature and started to grow large grotesque limbs that bent into arachnid shapes and then the tips into claws with giant spikes for nails that formed a sort of cage.

The grotesque limbs began to grow smaller branches of a rubbery, lustrous material. Flames began accumulating into the claws of the limbs and course through them like veins into the monster, even bulging as the flames moved through.

At this point, the girl could only stare from behind a tree with her mouth hanging open, yet she started also urinating on herself.

The monster eventually grew visible bloodshot eyes of blue veins and stared at Takashi, it just stared and began to wrap it's frail arms around him. The mouth began to form into tendrils and the jaw dislocated, showing it's disgusting fleshy orifice.

The tendrils wrapped around him and flaps of skin started falling off bit by bit, the blue ghostly flames engulfing the monster and him almost completely.

Bits of earth began growing out of the ground into small spires of glowing red heat and a beam of white light just a bit thinner than an oak tree's trunk shot out from the location.

No sound could be heard any more, only silence fell on the girl's ears.

A piece of Takashi's pelvis flung out and knocked against the girl's shoulder, cutting it wide open followed by a small splash of water, but she had no reaction greater than pure terror to display.

The monster floated upwards suddenly and warped it's upper half into a sort of vortex, the beam of light disappearing as it exploded into a cage of marrow holding a bright -almost blinding- light that left an afterimage.

The explosion left behind tall and thin steel structures that curled up halfway, 10 of them all in a circle surrounding a small cylindrical tower of polymer-like marrow and web. The monster simply disappeared without leaving a trace of Takashi but that one piece of pelvis.

The girl collapsed to her knees while holding her shoulder on the cut and began hyperventilating with tears streaming down her cheeks.

Just then, Birch and Takashi's father ran over to see what was going on and found the girl in said condition. They looked forward to see the other-worldy structures settled in the clearing.

Completely shocked and unable to respond to this occurrence, Birch and Takashi's father stared blankly and keeled down to comfort the girl.

Just as they did so, she bursted out in a screaming fit of bawling and trauma-induced quivering.

The two men managed to pick her up and bring back home after an hour, though the entire time she was screaming, "KILL ME!" repeatedly.

Upon return, Birch agreed to bring the girl back to her home and help her calm down and sleep for the night. The ex-father returned to his own home, where he was greeted by his brunette, long haired, overall lovely looking wife, who was smiling and glad at his return momentarily. The happiness was ended by the realization that her son was not present.

She looked at him worriedly and asked, "Where...is Takashi?"

The ex-father looked down and slowly embraced his wife who backed away slowly and dropped the cup she was holding, "He can't..."

They both began shaking, then the wife sat down on a nearby couch and stared at the ground in front of her.

Everything went dead silent except for the TV in the background playing a game show.

The town slept not that night.

And so ends the first of many days to come.


End file.
